Great Singers III: Evenings of Song

Get to know the talents of these rising vocal stars in the
intimate setting of Weill Recital Hall. This revelatory series includes winners
of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the
Beverly Sills Award—events in the lives of singers that solidify their place as
the opera stars of tomorrow. Join us for Salon Encores following the recital with drinks and conversation.

Marlis Petersen is “a sterling soprano … cool, smart, centered, captivating” (Los Angeles Times). She’s triumphed in Berg’s Lulu at the Met, and in her New York recital debut—which features songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and more—she demonstrates the enduring power that Goethe’s Romantic concept of the eternal feminine has held over composers for more than two centuries.

You never forget a singer like Susanna Phillips. It seems that wherever she sings, critics follow with reviews that praise her “attractive, splendidly musical” performances (Chicago Tribune) and “gleaming” soprano voice (The Boston Globe). Last season, she triumphed in Lucia di Lammermoor in Chicago. As Martin Bernheimer exhorted his readers in the Financial Times: “Susanna Phillips. Remember the name.”

At the end of the 2009 documentary The Audition, a film about the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions, Alek Shrader—a young tenor flush with confidence and exuding charisma—astounds everyone with his performance of a notoriously demanding aria from Donizetti’s La fille du regiment. Now he performs in recital at Carnegie Hall.

With a vivid tenor voice, Paul Appleby turns a song into a heartfelt tale and makes “every word a living presence” (The New York Times). He sees his own career as a journey that “has led me to many formative experiences along the way—some joyful, some difficult, some exhilarating, some painful, and many unexpected.” Catch this rising star in Weill Recital Hall.